"THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."

THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.

THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.

He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.

THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations."

More to come as the circus side show called the Republican Party continues.

Reader Comments

But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles.

Sooo... he got Republicans to agree to go after WMDs? I bet that was about as hard as getting Democrats to agree to increase education spending.

The fact is that he never authored any of these examples, and the two issues that he was "leader" on where both failed quests.

While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service.

This is just flat wrong. It's like saying, "your criminal record is wiped clean when you turn 18." It sounds right at first, but isn't how it really is.

When units are federalized, they perform those missions under federal oversight. They will be federalized for an overseas deployment, but not for every military action. In addition, they are under direct governor control for anything domestic, like disaster relief, homeland security, search and rescue, etc. A governor is also CinC for the state police forces too.

All the national guard working on Gustav or Katrina relief, for example, do so under their governor's command.

Phelps, when Academia recognizes it as a valid source for me to cite then I will give them their due. Until then I would rather not be penalize for citing a source that I could easily edit and did with my college’s entry on Wikipedia.

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